Authors: Hvilsom, Christina; Segelbacher, Gernot;

One of the main challenges for conservation today is understanding changes in biodiversity. Genetic diversity provides the foundation for biodiversity and is necessary for long-term survival, adaptation, and resilience not only for individuals, but also for populations, species, and entire ecosystems. Monitoring genetic diversity across different time points is a first step to gain insight into the extent to which populations or species might be at risk, to guide conservation action and to provide evidence for solutions. However, putting genetic diversity monitoring into practice in the form of an effective, implemented project can be challenging. To help guide practitioners through the decision and evaluation processes of identifying the most appropriate set of species or populations to monitor in a genetic diversity monitoring project, the IUCN SSC Conservation Genetics Specialist Group has produced a guidance document. A suite of steps and considerations that needs to be taken into account when planning a genetic diversity monitoring project will be presented, followed by criteria which should be evaluated to select which species and populations to monitor. Lastly, different key aspects will be highlighted, and case studies used to illustrate different approaches to establishing genetic diversity monitoring projects.